Eco Factor: Water leakage detecting robot powers itself with hydroelectricity.
Statistics show that about three billion liters of chemically treated drinking water is lost each day in London due to faults in water piping systems. The conventional maintenance of the system needs people to dig up the pipe and inspect each and every inch of the pipes to rectify any breach. Apart from being costly, this method proves to be a menace to traffic and people living nearby.
Kaunsthochschule Berlin has designed an autonomous robot that detects these breaches and that too without making use of even a single AA battery for the same. The system called the TubeBot is an autonomous robot that generates electricity from the pressure of water to power itself and keep it moving. The system ultrasonically scans the whole length of the piping system and sends the data to a remote location, where monitors get the exact location of the breach and dig up pipe only at that point to patch it up.
The Dark Side:
The dimensions of the robot make it viable only for pipes that leave the water station and not pipes with a smaller diameter, where leaks are more frequent.
Via: DesignSpotter
